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This article concerns all Persian-speaking people including
those found in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and other neighboring
countries in-depth information about Central Asian Persians, see
Tajik people

The Persian peoples emerged as an eclectic collection of groups
with the Persian language being the
main shared legacy. Diverse populations in Central Asia, such as
the Hazaras show traces of Mongol ancestry.
As Persian was the lingua franca of the Iranian plateau
(the highlands between Iraq and the Indus) it has come to be used
by numerous groups as a second language including Turkic and Arab
groups. While most Persians in Iran adhere to Shia Islam, those to the east remain followers of
Sunni Islam. Small groups of Persians
continue to follow the pre-Islamic faiths of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism
and the post-Islamic Bahá'í
Faith.

While a categorization of a 'Persian' ethnic group persists in the
West, Persians have generally been a pan-national group often
comprising regional peoples who rarely refer to themselves as
'Persians' and sometimes use the term 'Iranian' instead. The
synonymous usage of Iranian and Persian persisted over the
centuries despite the varied meanings of Iranian, which includes different
but related languages and ethnic groups. As a pan-national group,
defining Persians as an ethnic group, at least in terms used in the
West, is problematic since Persians are a varied group.

Terminology

Costumes of an ancient Persian
noblemen and soldiers.

The term Persia was adopted by all western languages through the
Greeks and was used as an official name for Iran by the West until
1935. Due to that label, all Iranians were considered Persian.
Also, many others who embraced the Persian language and culture are
also often referred to as Persian as a part of Persian civilization
(culturally and/or linguistically).

Ancient

The first known written record of the term Persian is from
Assyrian inscriptions of the 9th century
BCE, which mention both Parsuash and Parsua .
These cognate words were taken from old Iranian Parsava
and presumably meant border, borderland and were
geographical designations for Iranian populations (who referred to
themselves as Aryans as an ethnic designation or showing the
nobility). Nonetheless, Parsua and Parsuash, were two different
geographical locations, the latter referring to southwestern Iran,
known in Old Persian as
Pârsa (Modern Fars). The Greeks (who
tended earlier to use names related to "Median") began in the fifth
century to use adjectives such as Perses, Persica
or Persis for Cyrus the
Great's empire, which is where the word Persian in
English comes from. In the later parts of the Bible, where this kingdom is frequently mentioned
(Books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya), it is called "Paras" (Hebrew פרס), or
sometimes "Paras ve Madai" (פרס ומדי) i.e. "Persia and Media".

One of the roots of creative stimulations during the Parthian Empire was the Achaemenid Empire. Courtiers spoke Persian
and used the Pahlavi script. During the Sassanid Empire the intermingling of
Persians, Medes, Parthians and indigeneous people of Iran,
including the Elamites gained more
ground and a homogeneous Iranian identity was created to the extent
that all were just called Iranians/Persians irrespective of
clannish affiliations and regional linguistic or dialectical
alterities. The Elamite language may have survived as late
as the early Islamic period. Ibn
al-Nadim among other medieval
historians, for instance, wrote that "The Iranian languages are
Fahlavi (Pahlavi), Dari, Khuzi, Persian and Suryani", and Ibn Moqaffa noted that
Khuzi was the unofficial language of the royalty of
Persia, "Khuz" being the corrupted name for Elam. However the
Elamite identity might have vanished already. As to Strabo, the Cyrtians who were
plausibly the ancestors of the modern Kurds were called one of the Persian tribes.
Cyrtians,
the generally accepted progenitors of the Kurds and Lurs might already have been significantly scattered in
the Zagros from Persis
into Media.

The nightingale is on top of the flower like a minstrel who has
lost her heartIt bemoans sometimes in Parsi (Persian) and sometimes
in Dari (Khurasani Persian) Laki and
Kurdish speakers.Lady Shiel in her observation of Persia during
the Qajar describes the Persian tribes and Koords/Laks identified
themselves and were identified commonly as Old Persians. See:
Shiel, Lady (Mary). Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia. London:
John Murray, 1856. See:[4052], excerpt:

The PERSIAN TRIBES. The tribes are divided into three races-Toorks,
Leks, first are the invaders from Toorkistan, who, from time
'immemorial, have established themselves in Persia, and who still
preserve their language. The Leks form the clans of genuine Persian
blood, such as the Loors, BekhtiaTees, &c. To them might be
added the Koords, as members of the Persian family; but their
numbers in the dominions of the Shah are comparatively few, the
greater part of that widely-spread people being attached to Turkey.
Collectively the Koords are so numerous that they might be regarded
as a nation divided into distinct tribes. Who are the Leks, and who
are the Koords? This in- quiry I cannot solve. I never met any one
in Persia, either eel or moolla, who could give the least
elucidation of this question. All they could say was, that both
these races were Foors e kadeem,-old Persians. They both speak
dialects the greater part of which is Persian, bearing a strong
resemblance to the colloquial language of the present day, divested
of its large Arabic mixture. These dialects are not perfectly
alike, though it is said that Leks and Koords are able to
comprehend each other. One would be disposed to consider them as
belonging to the same stock,. did they not both disavow the
connection. A Lek will- admit that a Koord, like himself, is an 11
old Persian," but he denies that the families are identical, and a
Koord views the question in the same light.

Modern era

The name "Persia" was the "official" name of Iran in the Western
world before 1935, but Persian people inside their country since
the Sassanid period (226–651 A.D.)
have called it "Iran". Accordingly the term "Persian" was used in
the Western world as the people inhabiting Iran; for instance,
Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937), the
Prime-Minister of the United Kingdom, and the British ambassador in Iran, Percy Loraine, used Persian and
Persian people to talk about the Iranian people and
government. On 21 March, 1935, the ruler of the country, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking
foreign delegates to use the term Iran in formal
correspondence. From then on "Iranian" and "Persian" was applied
interchangeably to the population
of Iran. It is still historically being used to designate some
Iranian people living in Greater Iran.

History

The Persians are believed to be descendents of the Aryan (Indo-Europeans) tribes that began migrating
from Central Asia into what is now Iran in the second millennium
BCE. The
Persian language and other Iranian tongues emerged as these Aryan
tribes split up into two major groups, the Persians and the
Medes, and intermarried with minority peoples
indigenous to the Iranian plateau such as the Elamites.The first mention of the Persians dates to
the 9th century BCE, when they appear as the Parsu in
Assyrian sources, as a people living at the
southeastern shores of Lake
Urmia.

The
founding dynasty of the empire, the Achaemenids, and later the Sassanids, were from the southern region of
Iran, Pars. The latter Parthian
dynasty arose from the north. However, according to archaeological
evidence found in modern day Iran in the form of cuneiforms that go back to the Achaemenid era, it
is evident that the native name of Parsa (Persia) had been
applied to Iran from its birth.

Language

The Persian language is one of the world's oldest languages still
in use today, and is known to have one of the most powerful
literary traditions, with formidable Persian poets like Ferdowsi, Hafez, Khayyam, Attar,
Saadi, Nezami, Roudaki, Rumi and Sanai. By native speakers as well as in Urdu, Bengali,
Turkish, Arabic and other neighboring languages, it is called
Fārsī, and additionally Dari or Tajiki in the eastern parts of Greater Iran.

Sunni was the dominant form of Islam in most of Iran until rise of
Safavid Empire. There were however some exceptions to this general
domination of the Sunni creed which emerged in the form of the
Zaydīs of Tabaristan, the Buwayhid,
the rule of Sultan Muhammad
Khudabandah (r. Shawwal 703-Shawwal 716/1304-1316CE), the
Hashashin and the Sarbedaran. Nevertheless, apart from this
domination there existed, firstly, throughout these nine centuries,
Shia inclinations among many Sunnis of this land and, secondly, all
three surviving branches of Shi'a Islam, Twelver, Ismaili, as well as
Zaidi had prevalence in some parts of Iran.
During
this period, Shia in Iran were nourished from Kufah, Baghdad and later from Najaf and Hillah.Shiism
were dominant sect in Tabaristan,
Qom, Kashan, Avaj and Sabzevar. In many other areas the population of Shia
and Sunni was mixed. In recent centuries Ismailis have also largely been an Indo-Iranian
community,

The first Shia regime, the Safavid
dynasty in Iran, propagated the Twelver faith, made Twelver law
the law of the land, and patronized Twelver scholarship. For this,
Twelver ulama "crafted a new theory of government" which held that
while "not truly legitimate", the Safavid monarchy would be
"blessed as the most desirable form of government during the period
of waiting" for the twelfth
imam.

Culture

Persian culture can be defined through its films, as Persian cinema has attained a substantial
amount of international and critical acclaim through such films as
Children of Heaven and
Taste of Cherry, which give
both insights into the current state of Persian culture and
profound depictions of the general human condition.

Arts

The artistic heritage of Persia is eclectic and includes major
contributions from both east and west. Persian art borrowed
heavily from the indigenous Elamite civilization
and Mesopotamia and later from Hellenism (as can be seen with
statues from the Greek period). In addition, due to Persia's
somewhat central location, it has served as a fusion point between
eastern and western arts and architecture as Greco-Roman influence
was often fused with ideas and techniques from India and China.
When talking of the creative Persian arts one has to include a
geographic area that actually extends into Central Asia, the
Caucasus, Asia Minor, and Iraq as well as modern Iran. This vast
geographic region has been pivotal in the development of the
Persian arts as a whole.

Statues

Persians' artistic expression can be seen as far back as the
Achaemenid period as numerous statues
depicting various important figures, usually of political
significance as well as religious, such as the Immortals (elite troops of the emperor)
are indicative of the influence of Mesopotamia and ancient Babylon.
What is perhaps most representative of a more indigenous artistic
expression are Persian
miniatures. Although the influence of Chinese art is apparent, local Persian artists
used the art form in various ways including portraits that could be
seen from the Ottoman Empire to the
courts of the Safavids and Mughals.

Music

The music of Persia goes back to the days of Barbad in the
royal Sassanid courts, and even earlier.
As it
evolved, a distinct eastern Mediterranean style emerged as Persian folk music is often quite
similar to the music of modern Iran's neighbors. In modern
times, musical tradition has seen setbacks due to the religious
government's policies in Iran, but has survived in the form of
Iranian exiles and dissidents who have turned to Western rock music
with a distinctive Iranian style as well as Persian rap.

Architecture

Architecture is one of the areas where Persians have made
outstanding contributions. Ancient examples can be seen in the ruins at
Persepolis, while in modern times monuments such as the Tomb
of Omar Khayyam are displays of the
varied tradition in Persia.Various cities in Iran are historical
displays of a distinctive Persian style that can be seen in the
Kharaghan twin towers of Qazvin province and the Shah Mosque found in Isfahan.Persian architecture
streams over the borders of Iran and is clearly seen throughout
Central Asia as with the Bibi Khanum Mosque in Samarkand as well as Samanids
mausoleum in Bukhara and the Minaret of Jam in western Afghanistan. Islamic architecture was founded on the
base established by the Persians. Persian techniques can also be clearly
seen in the structures of the Taj Mahal at Agra and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Rugs

Gottfried Semper called rugs "the
original means of separating space". Rug weaving was thus developed
by ancient civilizations as a basis of architecture. Persian rugs
are said to be the most detailed hand-made works of art. Also known
as the starus Rugs very important in the culture.Interworking of
fibers to produce cloth was known in Iran as early as the 5th
millennium BCE. When the famous Greek commander Themistocles was asking for asylum from Persia
, the “Persian carpet” was mentioned in his speech:

Gardens

The Persian gardens were designed to reflect paradise on earth; The
English word paradise is thought to come from the Persian
word Pardis, which refers to these gardens.

Although
having existed since ancient times, the Persian garden gained
greater prominence during the Islamic period as Arab rulers
cultivated Persian techniques to create gardens of Persian design
from Al-Andalus to Kashgar. Persian gardens are immortalized in the
One Thousand
and One Nights and the works of Omar Khayyam.

Women

Persian women have played an important role throughout history.
Scheherazade, though fictional, is an important
figure of female wit and intelligence, while the beauty of Mumtaz Mahal inspired the building of the
Taj
Mahal itself. While in ancient times, aristocratic
females possessed numerous rights sometimes on par with men,
generally Persian women did not attain greater parity until the
20th century. However, Táhirih, the
poet, had a great influence on modern women's movements throughout
the Middle East. The Táhirih
Justice Center is named after her.

Persian women today serve an active role in society. Persian women
can be seen working in a variety of areas such as politics, law
enforcement, transportation industries, etc. Universities still
tend to be dominated by women in Iran and one may find a large
number of female legislators in the Iranian Majlis (parliament),
even by western standards. Former Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, noted for her eloquence
in dealing with western media, set a new standard for aspiring
Iranian female politicians while serving under President
Khatami.